Illegal immigrant 'plots to leave and join Isil' after just nine months in Sheffield

An Iraqi illegal immigrant who sneaked in to the UK plotted to return to the war-torn country to join Isil after just nine months because he couldn’t settle in Sheffield, it is alleged.

Shivan Hayder Azeez Zanagana, 20, who is known as Aziz, had been living with his brother in the South Yorkshire city when he allegedly planned to go back to Iraq.

An asylum seeker who has been in the UK for eight years is also suspected of trying to smuggle himself back out of Britain to join the terror group.

Aras Mohammed Hamid, 26, was discovered in the back of a lorry at Dover while Aziz is said to have bought a plane ticket using his Iraqi passport.

The two men are charged under terrorism laws of plotting to join the Salahaddin Battalion, a Kurdish group fighting for Islamic State in Iraq and Levant.

A third man, Ahmad Ismail, 18, has been charged with failing to inform the authorities of Hamid’s alleged intentions.

Aziz entered the UK illegally in September 2015 having travelled via Italy. He left Iraq after being injured in a car bomb explosion.

He moved to Sheffield to live with his brother last November but is alleged to have begun planning with Hamid to return to Iraq.

He is said to have become home sick and missed his mother and younger siblings.

He was arrested at the Al-Noor mosque in Birmingham on May 17.

Hamid was found in the back of a lorry two days later.

Ismail was arrested at his home in Coventry on May 22 after allegedly withholding information relating to Hamid.

The three men appeared before Westminster Magistrates on Friday.

Hamid, of no fixed abode, is charged with one count of preparing for acts of terrorism, one count of assisting Aziz to prepare for an act of terrorism, and one count of possessing a false identity document.

Aziz, from Sheffield, is charged with one count of preparing for acts of terrorism contrary to section 5 of the Terrorism Act 2006.

Ismail, of Coventry, faces one count of failing to disclose information to police of an offence involving the commission, preparation or instigation of an act of terrorism, contrary to section 38b of The Terrorism Act 2000.

Deputy Chief Magistrate Emma Arbuthnot said: “You will be sent to the Central Criminal Court and your first appearance there will be on the 23 June.”